Editing Perfect Blue (section)

== Analysis ==

In an analysis of ''Perfect Blue'' and Kon's other works, professor [[Susan J. Napier|Susan Napier]] states that "''Perfect Blue'' announces its preoccupation with perception, identity, voyeurism, and performance – especially in relation to the female – right from its opening sequence. The perception of reality cannot be trusted, with the visual set up only to not be reality, especially as the psychodrama heights towards the climax."<ref name="ca">{{cite book |last=Napier |first=Susan J. |title=Cinema Anime: Critical Engagements with Japanese Animation |url=https://archive.org/details/cinemaanimecriti00brow |url-access=registration |editor=Brown, Steven T. |year=2006 |publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]] |location=London, England |isbn=978-1-4039-8308-4 |chapter='Excuse Me, Who Are You?': Performance, the Gaze, and the Female in the Works of Kon Satoshi |access-date=November 15, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200613125944/https://archive.org/details/cinemaanimecriti00brow |archive-date=June 13, 2020 |url-status=live }}</ref> Napier also sees themes related to [[Japanese idol|pop idols]] and their performances as impacting the gaze and the issue of their roles. Mima's madness results from her own subjectivity and attacks on her identity. The ties to [[Alfred Hitchcock]]'s work are broken with the murder of her male controllers.<ref name=ca /> ''Otaku'' describes the film as a "critique of the consumer society of contemporary Japan."<ref name=ca />{{refn|group=Note|Reference to the quote is provided by Napier as: Jay, "Satoshi Kon", ''Otaku'' (May/June 2003):22}}